Utilizing standard CDS Views for Change Document Tables – CDHDR & CDPOS

[SeshaP]

Hi All,

This blog post provides information on reading or viewing data of change documents tables information through standard CDS views. Using these views, we can read most of the standard SAP master and transactional data object changes like Purchase order, Purchase Requisition, Material, Plant, Internal order etc.,

Introduction:

What is a Change Document -

A change document logs changes to a business object. The document is created independently of the database changes. In SAP, any change log information of an SAP documents or objects captured in tables CDHDR and CDPOS

• CDHDR: It contains the header data of the change to an object ID in an object class and change document number is automatically assigned.


• CDPOS: It contains the old and new value of a field in a change and a change flag.

Both header and item tables capture changes such as change data in Material Master, changes to Purchase orders/ Purchase Req (PR), Purch Orders, Contracts, Sales Orders, Internal orders etc.,

More info about Change Document:

https://help.sap.com/saphelp_ewm900/helpdata/en/48/dfd498ab14280de10000000a42189c/frameset.htm#:~:te...

Problem:

In general, ECC or R/3 systems we will read change documents or change log information of SAP Objects using tables CDHDR & CDPOS.

https://answers.sap.com/questions/4774128/purchase-order-change-log.html

https://answers.sap.com/questions/10554723/change-history-in-material-master.html

https://answers.sap.com/questions/4181661/changehistory-log-of-pr.html

In addition, we have to create custom views and custom reports as per business requirements through SQVI. Developer or user must put some efforts for getting this information. We  must know the Change document object, Object value and the transaction details used for that SAP object to get details of a particular object.

Example – for Purchase order Object value is EINKBELEG and transaction ME22N.

Solution:

In S4 Hana, we have some standard CDS views using them we can get the change document information of any SAP Objects easily by simply running the standard view in SE16n.

• Material Change Log - CGRCMATLMSTRCHG


• PO change Log – IPURGCHGDOCITM


• PR Change Log – CMMPRIDOCCHNG

This blog post has covered most of the standard CDS views which are  available for change document tables as listed below. These views have additional attributes it can be helpful from business perspective and developers to track change history details.

All these views can be accessed either in Eclipse or sql views in SE16n or SE11.

Hope this blog post helps.

Any suggestions or comments welcome.

Thank you!

 

[Jelena]

There is a standard transaction AUT10 that SAP built specifically to look at all kinds of the change documents. But for some reason it was never advertised and I find that many SAP professionals haven't heard about it. I learned about it myself by accident when someone mentioned it on SCN years ago.

I've checked if there is a Fiori app replacement for it and did not find anything. Change logs are incorporated in some of the respective business objects, as you noted. But this is sometimes not enough.

Previously I've directed the users to AUT10 for all their SOX audit needs and they were able to make it work. (Some help was initially needed to set up selection variants.) It's not perfect by any means but definitely cuts down on the custom report requests. And it's free. 🙂

[SeshaP]

Thank you for reading this blog post and providing your feedback.

AUT10 mainly used for audit purpose and most of the users might not have access to this transaction due to security constraints. Moreover, this transaction will track changes at user specific  level not at object level.

This blog post was intended for reporting purpose, if we have a need or a request to create a report or extract data to track change history details of any sepcific sap objects like material, purchase order etc., Using this blog post with the above listed CDS views we can track the changes and we can recreate the reports directly in ABAP/Fiori /AFO.

 

[Jelena]

There is no point to give AUT10 access to every user but at least some key users (or those responsible for providing governance reports) should have it.

I'm not sure what you mean by "track changes at user specific level not at object level"... The change document tables contain the data. This data can be presented in any way. AUT10 can also present it based on different selection. When it just opens, it does look a bit weird but there is a button on the toolbar that opens a much better selection screen. The output is ALV grid, which the users can organize in any way they like.

It's fine to create your own report or Fiori app but please understand the data source is still be the same as in AUT10: change document tables. I'm really not sure why SAP did not provide a Fiori app as AUT10 replacement since CDS views are already available. My only guess is it's just not a priority right now.